joy is in the ear that hears and mouth thats speaks

Well it’s been a while… I realized that’s I’m not one to write about stuff… haha... but its seems that my friends are wondering what’s happening to me here… well some things can’t be put into words they must be experience to enjoy the mirth and joy in it, a picture speaks a thousands words and all that…

My life here is probably overrated… many of you would be rejoicing at the chance to be out of “boring” Singapore. But not many of you would realize that it’s hard to be living alone. We chafe at the restriction we have in Singapore and tend to think that western country is more fun and wild.

But I kid you not, my life here is boring to the max, living alone has its benefits and its cons also… benefits such as doing what you want, no one to tell you what to do, to nag at you to sleep early or wake up to do thing are kinda fun for the first few weeks but after that’s its depressing… my living alone is still restricted in the fact that I’m still getting money from my family for my expense and that limits the activity and freedom that I can do… money makes the world go round after all…

What I missed about sg is the food. Oh GOD… the endless choices of food that are available 24/7… here I have to fend for myself my meals and it’s a thankless chore, as I’m a guy with a big appetite but lazy to cook and clean up after it. A simple meal can take you up to an hr in preparation, cooking and cleaning up after. And I have restricted myself to the easiest meal I can think of to save my time and effort. What I wouldn’t give for a home-cook meal which I wouldn’t have to prepare myself. Why then wouldn’t you spend money on meals?

The answer is simple, meals here are expensive, a simple chicken rice would cost you about $7 and that is without drinks, which is why most people carry around with them water bottle. Fast food cost is equally expensive ranging from about $6 - $8 for a burger meal or $8 - $9 for KFC. Me being a guy with limited experience in grocery shopping was confounded by the prices of grocery but its definitely cheaper to cooked at home rather then eating out. The only comfort I have is chips which is relatively cheap at certain period, a big bag of chips cost around $2 when its on offer, so frequent trips to the supermarket are a must always with the knowledge that ifs its expensive now, jus wait for the next week, coz you know that the price will drop to that level. Unfortunately the weather is turning colder nowadays and that tends to make one more hungry, it’s kinda hard to sleep with an empty stomach but sleep will eventually come.

Good thing about being here thou is the pay for part time worker is good, friend at Mac told me he is earning about $16.50 an hr, cool right, no worker at sg can compare to that. With money in my sight I though it will be a good way to earned money and support myself.

But there are restriction to these condition, a student can only work for 20 hrs per week during school term and the full 40 hrs during break, which just about eliminates any office job, coz if you think about it which company would want to hire you for 2 and a half day? Even with data entry, the training and transition period from one co worker to another would take up the time. No to mention the tax that you would have to pay, tax here is apparently high but is claimable. So what are left are mostly sales and service jobs. Unfortunately Perth also happens to be the Australian state with the highest population of Asian student… hmmm… what does that mean then???

There is no need to say it, we all know it… haha…contrast to that I admit I didn’t put all my heart into finding a part time job, there are some circumstances that I place on myself in finding a job and that limits my choices. Fortunately my family is understanding about it, if I find a job they are happy about it but are more concerned with me being here studying.

But probably the most depressing thing that can happen to you here is the sense of loneliness. Maybe it’s me but it’s kinda hard to make friends when you come into university starting at the second year, most people have already form clique and when you are a newbie, you probably wouldn’t talked to people in your class during the first few weeks and then the chance is gone. Class is jus like most university, with common lecture for different majors, trying to find familiar face in class that shares your same major is not easy as it seems. Socializing for me is hard, although most of you think that I’m easy to talk to and fun to joke around, that is probably because we are friends for some time, if you had though back to the beginning, my behavior was probably distance until we knew each other better. Even with friends and family, I still a quite introvert and probably only a few people have heard me talked about my problems.

Socializing around probably does not exist, with a budget in mind and meals at home, I spent most of my time at home. Which lead to one of my room mates commenting whether I was studying at all here, in my defense, I had to say I planned my time table pretty good, with all my class squeeze into 3 days and the timing of it allowed me to eat lunch and dinner at home. Not so well is this term time table, although I manage to once again squeeze it into 3 days it’s mostly night class, as the lectures are mostly evening… FYI evening here is around 5pm as the sun has already set by that time (winter). Squeezing your schedule into 3 days is actually a good thing if you are holding a job, but if you are not then the time spend here is horribly long.

Especially during this break, oh how I’m regretting my sister offering asking me to come home for the break. 24/7 I have spend looking at the 4 walls of my room with the occasional trips to the toilet, kitchen and dining room, my world has shrink to the confines of my house. My eyes are eager for any sight that is different, my nose begs to smell fresh air, my ear begs to listen, and my mouth aches to speak. Sometimes I talked to my roommate or to my friend but that’s only for a short while and it’s never enough and then it’s back to the solitarily confinement of my room. The pressure is immense, sometimes it feels like the pressure is in my eyes or my mouth aching for relief but cant find the release. I combat it but trying to find things to do, reading books and sleeping are the only things that I have manage to do but both while offering me comfort also reinforce my solitarily. It’s a sad and pitiful existence and time pass slowly, sometimes it’s hard to sleep at night, the body natural amount of energy which is hardly spent at all during the day exerts itself and you toss and turn in bed in the dark…

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Enough about these stuff… lets write about happier stuff… I think the thing that amaze me the most been here is the scenery… words cant describe it properly. Its like everything here from the flowers beside the roads to the tree… they have a vibrant lifelines in them, even pictures cant capture the glow, the beauty… before here I have never seen a sunflower that so … for want of a better word… “alive” although its jus roadside plant… its color jus seems to glow in the sun… sometimes when I’m bored, before it was too cold, I used to walk around the neighborhood and what a joy it was… coming from sg where everywhere was crowed and cramp, the air here is fresh and the plants are amazingly alive… even sometimes when I’m at home, I jus gaze outside my window to take in the trees… yes trees, the way the sun shine unto it changing its appearance to molten bronze and its amazing to see…no words are able to describe it but I think/hope most people would know what I mean, if you go overseas … to the remote places not like shopping area, you would know the tranquility of these meaning…

Quite a long post hur… hopes it satisfy you with what I been doing here… the everyday occurrences are too boring to note but if u want I can do it…

Here it is

1200 - 1300 : Reveille (wake up)

1300 - 1330 : Breakfast and wash up

1330 – 1830 : Leisure time (reading, grocery, walk, surfing the net, laundry,cleaning)

1830 – 1900 : Bath time

1900 – 2000 : Cooking and meal time

2000 – 2200 : Tv (depending if there is anything nice to watch)

2200 – 0200 : Surfing time

0200 – 1200 : Light out

Haha… it’s a standing joke with some of my friends when we haven’t meet up for some time… I used to report like that when they asked me what have I been doing… haha… its funnier when they ask you, and you go into attention mode and say it in a straight face…

That’s all for now… I will try to write some more… hope I remember my pw for my blog first… haha